Hello Anne, Many thanks for posting the link. > A Freeman Trustee seems to have received various pensions in compensation > for enclosure and encroachment on their "commons". Lot more complicated > than that, of course!! My understanding is that the although the Freeman Trustees were effectively committees who were responsible for the distribution of the funds arising as a result of this compensation, rather than recipiants of it. It seems that they received payment for serving on the committee so I suppose that you could say that they were recipiants, but being a recipiant did not mean that you were a Trustee. Towards the bottom of the article it refers to two of these committees, one establish to adminster a fund created in 1860 and another to adminster a fund created in 1875. The information I have about my great great grandfather comes from minutes of these Freemen Trustee committee meetings that are held by the Coventry Records Office. I did not know that there was more than one trust until I saw the article that you linked to so I do not know which of the trusts James Richardson was a trustee for. All that said, I do have some more research to do about my great great grandparents, which given the stuff in the news at the moment about care of the elderly seems topical. In the 1901 census James is at the home of his younger brother, Sidney Henry James in Harnell Lane. James' wife, Susannah nee CHITTEM, is listed at the Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital, Stoney Stanton Road. In 1891 both James and Susannah were living in Carlton House which used to be a big house on Holyhead Road (there used to be a painting of it on the wall of my grandparents' house). The family watch-manufacturing business seems to have passed to James' son Charles before the 1901 census, and by the time 1904 Kellys was published the watch-manufacturing business had gone bust and Charles Richardson had set up a guest house in Jesson Street. James' widow, Susannah, seems to have ended her days in Coventry Workhouse (where she died in October 1905) rather than in the care of one of her children's families. Regards Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: "A P L" <annepaling@hotmail.com> To: <warwick@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2007 9:01 AM Subject: Re: [WAR] FREEMEN OF COVENTRY > > > Fascinating!! > > Been reading stuff about City of Coventry from "British History" site. > > Any who served an apprenticeship successfully could apply to be A Freeman of > the City of Coventry. Very different to system that most other cities > operate? > > A Freeman Trustee seems to have received various pensions in compensation > for enclosure and encroachment on their "commons". Lot more complicated > than that, of course!! > > > http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16028 > > That's what I love about Family History research. You have to read about > what was happening in those times to understand what was happening to your > ancestors ... > > > Anne Paling > SHEFFIELD, U.K. > > > > > >>From: "Peter J Richardson" <pjrich.ntl@googlemail.com> >>To: "Turner" <peter@noduf.com> >>CC: warwick@rootsweb.com >>Subject: Re: [WAR] freeman >>Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:19:03 +0100 >> >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Turner" <peter@noduf.com> >>To: <warwick@rootsweb.com> >>Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 5:44 PM >>Subject: [WAR] freeman >> >> >> > My elderly aunt recently died and she was telling me that her husband >> > Fracis Royal Warner was a freeman of Coventry >> > >> > Where can I find out more about when he was made a freeman of the city? >> >>Coventry Records Office have some details of people who were freemen in the >>nineteenth century and I found some >>details of some of my ancestors there. My great great grandfather, James >>Richardson, was a Freeman's Trustee >>(though I'm not sure exactly what that entails) from 1895 until his death >>in 1901. He had been a freeman since >>December 1863 when he completed a watchmaking apprenticeship. My >>understanding is that it was not automatic that >>you became a freeman after completing the apprenticeship - you had to apply >>to become a freeman and not all >>people who completed their apprenticeships chose to do so. >> >>Regards >>Peter